Facts: In the early part of January, 1956, there appeared on the front page of The Manila Chronicle, of which petitioner Lopez was the publisher, as well as on other dailies, a news story of a sanitary inspector assigned to the Babuyan Islands, Fidel Cruz, sending a distress signal to a passing United States Airforce plane which in turn relayed the message to Manila. An American Army plane dropping on the beach of an island an emergency-sustenance kit containing, among other things, a two-way radio set. He utilized it to inform authorities in Manila that the people in the place were living in terror, due to a series of killings committed since Christmas of 1955. Losing no time, the Philippines defense establishment rushed to the island a platoon of scout rangers. Upon arriving Major Encarnacion and his men found, instead of the alleged killers, a man named Fidel Cruz who merely wanted transportation home to Manila. In view of this finding, Major Encarnacion branded as a "hoax," the report of respondent.
This Week Magazine of the Manila Chronicle, then edited by Gatbonton, devoted a pictorial article to it in its issue of January 15, 1956. Mention was made that while Fidel Cruz’ story turned out to be false it brought attention to the government that people in that most people in the area are sick sick, only two individuals able to read and write, food and clothing being scarce.
The magazine carried photographs of the person purporting to be Fidel Cruz. Unfortunately, the pictures that were published were that of private respondent Fidel G. Cruz, a businessman contractor from Santa Maria, Bulacan. It turned out that the photographs of respondent Cruz and that of Fidel Cruz, sanitary inspector, were on file in the library of the Manila Chronicle but when the news quiz format was prepared, the two photographs were in advertently switched. However a correction was published immediately.
Respondent sued petitioners in the Court of First Instance of Manila for the recovery of damages alleging the defamatory character of the above publication of his picture. Defense interposed that they are beating the deadline. The court ruled in his favor. Hence the appeal.
Issue: Whether or Not petitioners abused the freedom of the press.
Held: No. The SC, quoting Quisumbing v. Lopez, found for plaintiff, but with reduced damages, since the error in this case could have been checked considering that this was a weekly magazine and not a daily. The ruling: "there is no evidence in the record to prove that the publication of the news item under consideration was prompted by personal ill will or spite, or that there was intention to do harm,' and that on the other hand there was 'an honest and high sense of duty to serve the best interests of the public, without self-seeking motive and with malice towards none.' Every citizen of course has the right to enjoy a good name and reputation, but we do not consider that the respondents, under the circumstances of this case, had violated said right or abused the freedom of the press. The newspapers should be given such leeway and tolerance as to enable them to courageously and effectively perform their important role in our democracy. In the preparation of stories, press reporters and editors usually have to race with their deadlines; and consistently with good faith and reasonable care, they should not be held to account, to a point of suppression, for honest mistakes or imperfection in the choice of words.
“No inroads on press freedom should be allowed in the guise of punitive action visited on what otherwise could be characterized as libel whether in the form of printed words or a defamatory imputation resulting from the publication of respondent's picture with the offensive caption as in the case here complained of. This is merely to underscore the primacy that freedom of the press enjoys.”
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